How many of you play on God mode?

[SofaKingA]

Im thinking of throwing in the towel and switching over to God mode to get past Theseus and Asterius. Not sure how many times everyone has gone up against them before beating them but I've got my butt kicked like 4-5 times now. Should I make the switch to God mode or is this part of the grind. Thanks!

[Bobywan]

I probably died 5-6 times againt them as well at first.
Try to save all your death defiances and get the acorn keepsake.
Concentrate on asterius while hiding behind pillars from Theseus or use dodge at the right time. And for theseus, just play hide and seek and hit him in the back after he retrieves his spear.
I have never tried god mode.

[C4RNIVOR3]

All god mode is going to do is grant you 20% damage resistance. It does increase 2% each time you die until capping at 80% but it doesn't offer anything else. There's no consequences to turning it on, and you can turn it off again at any point in a run.

That said, the Elysium boss tends to be a progression wall for many players, so getting stuck there is fairly normal. Is there any particular part that's proving difficult about the fight? I could just link the various threads that pop up with good advice for the fight as a whole but if there's anything specific that's tripping you up, we can start there.

[Radipiz]

Fair point. How many runs do you have on your counter? Once you have some upgrades from the Mirror of Night, the game becomes much easier. As already said: defeat Asterius first, hide behind the pillars and keep track if Theseus is aiming for you. The challenge here is to keep track to two enemies, that can attack over a long distance.
My general advice is: Stop being greedy for hits. The game punishes greed more and more with your progress.
Forget about the god mode. It'll take a away a lot from the game. The more you play, the stronger you become by unlocking and training your skill. I've recently started a new savegame and beat the game after 14 runs. My first playthrough took 32 runs. Just keep on playing and try to learn to avoid being hit.

[Psyringe]

It doesn't really matter what I or others think (in my opinion) - if you find that you're not enjoying the game on regular difficulty, God mode is worth a shot.

Personally I did not use God mode in Hades. I'm always happy when such options exist because I think gamers should be able to experience the content they paid for regardless of their skill level. However, I also try to play games "as the devs intended" for as long as it works. In Hades, while there definitely were roadblocks, I felt that I was always making progress.

I definitely needed more than 5-6 attempts for each of the act bosses - probably about twice that number, and it took me 56 runs to beat the final boss for the first time. My skill level is probably not very high, my reflexes have aged over the past decades and I was never very good at spreading my attention across various enemies or projectiles to begin with. But for me, the game felt enjoyable despite those roadblocks, so I never switched to God mode and I eventually overcame them.

But again - your mileage may vary, and there's no shame in switching to a mode that might make you enjoy the game more.

I want to reiterate what C4RNIVOR3 said, though - perhaps you just haven't found a good approach for the Elysium boss fight yet. Personally I kept getting devastated whenever I tried a melee build, but running circles around the outer perimeter of the arena while attacking inward with a caster build worked fairly well. Having extra dashes (from the mirror and from Hermes) helped, especially when I managed to get Athena's Divine Dash to reflect Theseus' thrown spear. I achieved my first victories against these two by just dashing repeatedly whenever I saw the pink crosshair on my character, and fairly aimlessly using a cast that either seeks enemies by itself (Artemis, Demeter) or covers a fairly large area (Dionysos, Ares with upgrades).

I learned to focus on Asterius first (so that he's out of the picture already when Theseus calls for divine intervention). When only Theseus is left, I stay behind cover, quickly peek out to make him throw his spear (which I then evade by dashing or stepping back into cover), and then attack Theseus while he's walking away from me and shows me his back. I also used to start the fight by activating the Mort companion, which can take a good chunk (20-25% I'd guess) out of both bosses' health bar if you time it right, right at the start of the fight.

There are probably better strategies around (I don't read guides, I have more fun figuring things out on my own), but that's what worked for me. If you have any questions, just ask. :)

[KITTENCAKEPOP]

i was about to switch to god mode when I was at 70 escape attempts with a nearly fully unlocked mirror(this is my first rougelike) but managed to beat the game a couple times since then. You can do it if you keep trying.

[⭕TheSodaman]

Originally posted by SofaKingA:

Im thinking of throwing in the towel and switching over to God mode to get past Theseus and Asterius. Not sure how many times everyone has gone up against them before beating them but I've got my butt kicked like 4-5 times now. Should I make the switch to God mode or is this part of the grind. Thanks!

If you feel like you're going to quit the game and you have the option to toggle on God Mode, then I'd recommend toggling on God Mode.

The game has three major difficulties. God Mode, standard, and Hell Mode. For players that felt standard was too easy, they have the option of restarting in Hell Mode. And similarly, for players that want to experience more of the story and characters, you have the option of toggling on God Mode. And should you reach a point where you do want to add some challenge to the game, you can toggle God Mode off or add some game challenges via the Heat Mode.

Specifically for Theseus and Asterius, the first time I was able to clear it, I ended up luring Asterius to the outside of the arena and fighting him there. If I saw a pink/purple cross hair show up, I knew that Theseus was about to throw a javelin at me. Once Asterius is down, then I could focus on Theseus. Granted, I may not have much life during my earlier runs after the encounter, but at least getting the feel for the fight down.

[Jerboa_Queen]

Like everyone is saying, attack the bull first, ducking behind pillars to avoid Theseus' spear throws. Once you take out Asterius, bait Theseus's spear throws and attack him when he walks somewhere else to get a better shot on you. If you're too close for too long though, he'll do a spear spin attack, which has the visual cue of a thin white circle around him (Hades' fight has this mechanic as well). Once he gets to 50% health, and he summons a god call of his own, use your maxed out call once his invulnerability stops. He remains stationary when unleashing the call. (Cthonic Companions like the one from Thanatos will also do the trick) This will either kill Theseus or leave him with so little health you can take him out in a matter of hits.

[iiisixstringiii]

I eventually turned on God Mode around my 15th run.
But my reasons were this:

This is my first Rogue light, and my first couple of times playing, I actually didn't really know if I even truly liked the game. But I kept playing while watching Youtube vids for some tips and stuff. I wanted to give the game a fair shot, and not just say "Ehh, I don't think I like this game" and quit completely, while knowing there just may be a steep learning curve, but I was too lazy to learn and get better. (I also didn't want to quit and feel like I wasted $17, lol).

Another reason I enabled God Mode, is that I knew I had A LOT to learn. Mostly about the items in the game and how they work and synergy between them all. I felt that if I kept dying at the Hydra or even Meg over and over, that I wouldn't get to make it further so I could actually experiment with builds and how to make good ones so I'd be more powerful. So I really wanted to get a grasp on that, and once I do, I plan to turn God Mode off, and play it through again. I think I'm really getting the hang of the weapons and items and choosing the right boons to make powerful builds, and I can now say I'm super into this game, and definitely want to keep playing it and learning/growing stronger in my skills. I'm really looking forward to playing not only the regular difficulty to see how far I can make it, but I'm even hoping I can improve enough to play the higher difficulties!

And my last reason for turning it on, is I wanted to progress/discover as much of the story as I could, because DAMN this games story and characters are AMAZING!

[Diawl]

Yeah I couldn't be bothered and started playing on god mode. The only thing I would like is if I could set a custom cap on the damage reduction. 50% is too much, but no reduction either seems pretty unbearable when hades can hit you for 30+ damage per tick with some of his attacks (and that's before extreme measures 4)

[steele.knuckles]

I was in a similar boat, I could reliably get to Theseus but I think I died about 10 times before getting my first win from them. It was a bit frustrating but it was also the fight that taught me the games mechanics better as opposed to just mashing buttons.

Couple things that really helped me:

- grab the dark mirror ability that gives you an extra dash (imho the best dark mirror ability as it gives you more leeway to escape attacks)
- get at least one level in death defiance (dark mirror ability)
- Skelly's keepsake - this basically provides another death defiance ability

I would also always try the mini boss rooms in Elysium in hopes of getting the fight against Asterius. He has the same moveset so you can learn how to handle him without Theseus and then be better prepared for the main fight.

[C4RNIVOR3]

Originally posted by Diawl:

Yeah I couldn't be bothered and started playing on god mode. The only thing I would like is if I could set a custom cap on the damage reduction. 50% is too much, but no reduction either seems pretty unbearable when hades can hit you for 30+ damage per tick with some of his attacks (and that's before extreme measures 4)

Unfortunately setting values for god mode has been suggested by the community many times but supergiant has no plans to change how it is (I imagine it may be more difficult than we assume to set this up). But they do officially suggest using the hard labor pact condition to offset high god mode %

[SofaKingA]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I've decided not to switch to God Mode just yet. I'll try the strats here and keep at it. I get stronger each run so eventually I'll get there.

[cappie enjoyer]

I would advise trying to use more safe weapons to beat your first run. In my opinion the spear is great for this especially with range hammer upgrades.

[CacaFresca]

If you think Theseus and Asterius are tough now, wait until you try them on EM3.

It just takes practice is all, and ensuring you have the right boons/hammers for the task.

[Silent Guy]

Try to use the shield, it blocks theseus spear's attacks and the bull charge.